the Fifth Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Gihon (2)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
(גּיחון ,
(1) See preceding article.
(2) The Nile in Jeremiah 2:18 Septuagint ( Γηῶν ,
(3) A spring in Jerusalem, evidently sacred, and, for that reason, selected as the scene of Solomon's coronation (1 Kings 1:38 ). It is without doubt the spring known to the Moslems as
The spring is approached by a steep descent down 30 steps, the water rising deep underground; the condition is due to the vast accumulation of rubbish - the result of the many destructions of the city - which now fills the valley bed. Originally the water ran down the open valley. The water rises from a long deep crack in the rock, partly under the lowest of the steps and to a lesser extent in the mouth of a small cave, 11 1/2 ft. long by 5 ft. wide, into which all the water pours. The village women of Siloam obtain the water at the mouth of the cave, but when the supply is scanty they actually go under the lowest step - where there is a kind of chamber - and fill their vessels there. At the farther end of this cave is the opening leading into the aqueduct down which the water flows to emerge after many windings at the pool of Siloam. The first part of this aqueduct is older than the time of Hezekiah and led originally to the perpendicular shaft, connected with "Warren's tunnel" described elsewhere (see
The preëminent position of importance which Gihon held in the eyes of the earlier inhabitants of Jerusalem is shown by the extraordinary number of passages, rock cuttings, walls and aqueducts which exist all about the spring. Walls have been made at different periods to bank up the waters and direct them into the channels provided for them. Of aqueducts, besides the "Siloam aqueduct," two others have been formed. One running from the source at a considerable lower level than that of Hezekiah was followed by the present writer (see
These files are public domain and were generously provided by the folks at WordSearch Software.
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Gihon (2)'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​isb/​g/gihon-2.html. 1915.